Differing row gauges... will this be a problem?

[fleurdiabolique]

So I'm planning to make the Dragon Scale Gauntlets. (Some of you may remember my earlier post with a couple of questions about the pattern.) I haven't even started the actual gauntlets yet and I'm already having problems

Comments

[klayre53]

Agreed. Knitting is stretchy so this probably won't be a problem. The stretching in the ribbing vs. the relative stability of the chart will probably solve the issue. Try it out (as the previous poster said) and make sure you try it on before you decide whether it works. (it may look weird flat but correct itself when you put it on because of the stretching)

"If I am right, can I do anything to fix it?" Of Course! if you DO find that it is a problem there is a VERY simple fix for it. Short rows! You have to add extra rows to the chart section without adding rows to the ribbing secion right? All you do to insert an extra row there is to work your chart, wrap and turn, work your way back across the chart in pattern, wrap and turn again, then continue as normal. I would make the one row you're doing the other direction one of the 'all knit' rows that is not charted, and simply purl across. Voila! You've inserted two extra rows of chart without adding any rows of the ribbing. If you've ever knit socks, this is kinda like what you do in the heel, only you do it just once, and there aren't any decreases involved. You'd probably only have to do this once or twice on each gauntlet (if at all).

FYI... this is also how you deal with putting garter stitch and stockinette stitch next to each other to compensage for garter stitch having a smaller row guage, say if you wanted to do button bands in garter on a stockinette cardingan... same principle.

[fleurdiabolique]

Thanks to both of you for the advice! I'll just dive in and see how it goes, I guess.

I actually thought of short rows just before I fell asleep last night. Having confirmation that it would work is nice. I'd prefer to not have to deal with it if possible, because I've never tried them and this project has a lot of new things for me already. ;) But I'll give it a shot if I need to.